What is the Cursillo?

Key elements of the Episcopal Cursillo Ministry are relationship, evangelism, and reconciliation in the home, the parish, the community, and the world.

We bring together a diverse group of people to share the richness of many modes of worship and broaden our appreciation for our Church. Lay people conduct the Weekend with two or three clergy members as spiritual advisors. Cursillo presumes that those who attend a Weekend are already well grounded in the faith. It isn’t intended to be a conversion experience but an enriching and deepening of what is already there.

Often, Cursillo provides new insights into our faith. It is based on three pillars of the Cursillo Movement; piety, study and action. The deepening of each person’s faith through the weekend fosters new growth and may inspire new ministry among lay people.

Cursillo - A Ministry of the Episcopal Church (PDF)

When will the Cursillo be available in Montana?

A Cursillo weekend is being planned at Camp Marshall for April 17-19, 2026.

How did the Cursillo movement come to be?

The Cursillo movement originated in Spain in the late 1940s as a Catholic lay movement for spiritual renewal. The first official weekend was held in Majorca, Spain, in January 1949. It was brought to the United States in 1957 by Spanish airmen training in Waco, Texas, to a group of Spanish speaking Catholic men. Later it expanded to other parts of the world, including other Christian denominations like our Episcopal Church. The first Episcopal weekend was held with the help of Roman Catholic sponsors in the Diocese of Iowa in 1970.